Hi all. I am in the market for a gaming laptop.
Now I know desktops are cheaper, more powerful, more upgradable, etc... but I travel a lot for work and so I don't really have much time to spend on my rig at home. My dell latitude laptop is also getting pretty long in the tooth so I might as well kill two birds with one stone. Please don't come in here just to say "herp derp just build a desktop for half a s much".
I don't really care about how thick or heavy it is because my latitude is a notebook from the mid 2000's and weighs several pounds and is well over an inch thick. I would rather go for a 17 inch, but I would go for a 15 inch if the cheaper price allowed for a decent step up in internal power.
I have spent a few weeks pouring over different brands and sites. Alienware is out of the question because of the price for good components in those, so that leaves sager/clevo, MSI, and Asus. The site I am probably going to get my laptop from is Xotic PC.
Sager's seem to have the best hardware for the money, and are "decently" built, but they don't seem to come with a lot of features, I have heard they have loud fans, and that they also have mediocre touch devices and keyboards. Their chassis are also extremely plain. I like something with a little flashiness or a cool design.
MSI seems to have a good all around mix. More expensive than the sagers, but they also come with bonus features such as turbo drive for the fans, gold plated audio jacks, a steel series keyboard, very good speakers for a laptop, and a good unique design.
Asus. I like asus's G-series design, but the lack of high end graphics cards (no 670mx,675mx, or 680) is kind of a turnoff. especially since I want this laptop to still be able to game for at least a couple years at decent settings.
Which brand do you think I should get?
(I may be able to go a little over my budget if the specs are worth it and the price is close)